Elk Station now online with The Beast

By DOUG McDONOUGH dmcdonough@hearstnp.com

Published
1:40 pm CDT, Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Nicknamed “The Beast,” Golden Spread Electric Cooperative’s Elk Station Unit 1 when online in June and introduced to the public on Wednesday at an open house at the facility north of Abernathy. Construction already is under way on Elk Station Units 2 to 3. less

Nicknamed “The Beast,” Golden Spread Electric Cooperative’s Elk Station Unit 1 when online in June and introduced to the public on Wednesday at an open house at the facility north of Abernathy. ... more

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Nicknamed “The Beast,” Golden Spread Electric Cooperative’s Elk Station Unit 1 when online in June and introduced to the public on Wednesday at an open house at the facility north of Abernathy. Construction already is under way on Elk Station Units 2 to 3. less

Nicknamed “The Beast,” Golden Spread Electric Cooperative’s Elk Station Unit 1 when online in June and introduced to the public on Wednesday at an open house at the facility north of Abernathy. ... more

Elk Station now online with The Beast

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Nicknamed “The Beast,” Elk Station Unit I truly is a gentle giant towering over the High Plains north of Abernathy.

The huge gas-fired turbine dwarfs the nearby Antelope power plant, and construction is already under way on two more of massive GE turbines, immediately east of Unit 1.

Golden Spread Electric introduced Elk Station Unit 1 to the public Wednesday afternoon during an open house celebrating The Beast going online earlier this summer.

Mark Schwirtz, Golden Spread’s president and general manager, noted that Unit 1 and its two companions are natural gas-fired combustion turbines capable of producing 191 megawatts of electricity each. One megawatt of electricity, he said, can serve up to 500 homes.

Katy Wilner, general sales manager in North America for GE Power & Water, added that The Beast isn’t just big, it’s designed to efficiently generate enough power to supply 233,000 homes.

Elk Station officially achieved commercial operation status on June 12, 2015, a year after ground was broken on the project in June 2014. The design and construction of Elk Station was handled by Kiweit/TIC.

The project incorporates GE’s latest 7FA.05 combustion turbine, which is capable of reaching 70 percent full-load capacity within 10 minutes, which Schwirtz says makes them ideal to use in conjunction with wind and solar energy.

“The units are fast-start capable, allowing Golden Spread to utilize energy from the market and renewable energy projects while meeting the capacity needs of its members,” Schwirtz said.

In addition to adding the new units, Golden Spread is installing grid switching equipment that will allow much of the generation located at the Antelope Elk Energy Center to supply power to either the Southwest Power Pool or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the two electric grids in which Golden Spread serves its 16 distribution cooperative members.

“Golden Spread supplies 282,000 meter connections from the Oklahoma Panhandle all the way down to Eldorado,” explained Stan McClendon, Golden Spread’s chairman of the board and general manager of Greenbelt Electric Cooperative. Area cooperatives which are members of Golden Spread include Lamb County, Lighthouse, Swisher, South Plains, Greenbelt, Bailey County and Deaf Smith.

Antelope Station reached commercial operation on June 24, 2011, and can generate 168 megawatts of natural gas-fire electricity. The plant consists of 18 9.34 MW Wartsila reciprocating engine generators, each of which can achieve full output in five minutes. According to Golden Spread, those generators are a perfect choice to supplement intermittent generation as they can start quickly, are energy efficient and use virtually no water.

Wilner said Elk Unit 1’s GE 7F.05 turbine is that unit’s first startup in the United States, and the first 7F unit to operate on GE’s advanced DLN2.6+ combustion system. “This system allows for even lower emissions compared to GE’s previous combustion technology,” she said.

Its ability to start quickly means that when the wind’s not blowing, power can be replaced on the grid quickly to help meet the energy needs of consumers,” Wilner said.

“Emissions typically go up as utilities increase or reduce output,” explained Monte Atwell, general manager of power generation product management at GE Power & Water. “Fortunately, the 7F.05 remains emissions compliant while it ramps up at 40 MW per minute and turns down to 38 percent of maximum output. As the wind fluctuates, the 7F.05 gas turbine can quickly provide the power needed while being cleaner and better for the environment as compared to previous GE technology.”

H.B. “Trip” Doggett, CEO of ERCOT, added that the construction of 1,000 MW of electrical generation is needed within that grid each year just to keep up with the state’s economic growth. “The Antelope Elk Energy Center is perfectly situated to help meet that need,” since it has interconnections with both ERCOT and the Southwest Power Pool. “And this machine is perfectly suited to integrate with renewable resources which are now being added to the grid. The end consumers are the real winners in this new technology.”

Nick Brown, president and CEO of the Southwest Power Pool, applauded Golden Spread’s board and member cooperatives for having the vision to construct the Antelope Elk Energy Center at such a crossroads between two major power grids, and to embrace a strategy to integrate quick-fire generation technology with renewable energy sources. “It’s remarkable that you had that vision in 2005, and were able to follow through and invest the capital needed to come to this point a decade later.”

Also appearing on Wednesday’s program was State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), who represents District 28.